Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi

Abdel Aziz "the Lion of Palestine" al-Rantissi (23 October 1947-17 April 2004) was the co-founder of Hamas alongside Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. For one month after the death of Yassin he led Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but was also killed shortly after.

Biography
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi was born in Yibna in Mandatory Palestine, and in 1948 his family was expelled during the Israeli War of Independence; in 1956, his uncle was killed by Israeli soldiers. He studied pediatric medicine and genetics at Alexandria University in Egypt, and became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood while there. In 1987, after the death of four Palestinian civilians in a traffic accident, Rantissi, Ahmed Yassin, Salah Shehade, and others organized the "First Intifada", an anti-Israeli uprising. They organized Hamas, a terrorist network that sought to destroy Israel and reassert Muslim rule over the Middle East. In 1992 he was deported to Lebanon, and many times he was arrested in Israel. After Shehade's death in July 2002, he became the spokesman of Hamas, and after Yassin's death in March 2004 its leader.

Death
While in Gaza City in the embattled Gaza Strip, Rantissi was targeted by Israeli Apache helicopters. They fired missiles on his convoy, killing Rantissi, his son, and four bystanders. Shortly after, a bombing in Beersheba killed 15 Israelis and wounded 80, in revenge for his death.